Apple released iOS 7.1 on Monday, marking the first major update to the company’s mobile operating system since its release last year. So what’s new?
Despite it being a .1 release, iOS 7.1 doesn’t offer many new features that will leave you feeling the urge to upgrade. The software update includes several bug fixes and UI tweaks that seemingly weren’t ready when iOS 7 was released in September of last year.
iOS 7.1 is focused on technical fixes. If you’ve been experiencing random reboots with your phone, iOS 7.1 will reportedly repair your issue. There are also recognition improvements to TouchID on iPhone 5s, and the operating system’s overall performance on iPhone 4 has been stepped up.
If iOS 7’s various animations have left you feeling dizzy, you’ll find added improvements to the “Reduce Motion” feature in 7.1. The switch now also disables animations in Messages, Weather, and Multi-tasking, and you can now decide whether or not you want your wallpaper to have the zoomed-in, 3D look. For more on the Reduce Motion feature, check out our previous story.
Here is a full list of what’s new in iOS 7.1 from Apple:
CarPlay
iOS experience designed for the car
Simply connect your iPhone to a CarPlay enabled vehicle
Supports Phone, Music, Maps, Messages, and 3rd-party audio apps
Control with Siri and the car’s touchscreen, knobs, and buttons
Note: The above feature is only compatible with cars that support CarPlay (at this time, very few).
Siri
Manually control when Siri listens by holding down the home button while you speak and releasing it when you’re done as an alternative to letting Siri automatically notice when you stop talking
New, more natural sounding male and female voices for Mandarin Chinese, UK English, Australian English, and Japanese
iTunes Radio
Search field above Featured Stations to easily create stations based on your favorite artist or song
Buy albums with the tap of a button from Now Playing
Subscribe to iTunes Match on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to enjoy iTunes Radio ad-free
Calendar
Option to display events in month view
Country specific holidays automatically added for many countries
Accessibility
Bold font option now includes the keyboard, calculator, and many icon glyphs
Reduce Motion option now includes Weather, Messages, and multitasking UI animations
New options to display button shapes, darken app colors, and reduce white point
Other
New Camera setting to automatically enable HDR for iPhone 5s
iCloud Keychain support in additional countries
FaceTime call notifications are automatically cleared when you answer a call on another device
Fixes a bug that could occasionally cause a home screen crash
Improves Touch ID fingerprint recognition
Improved performance for iPhone 4
Fixes display of Mail unread badge for numbers greater than 10,000
Continued user interface refinements
Is iOS 7.1 worth the upgrade? Yes, because it’s free and offers several fixes. Even if you’re not feeling like you need all of these improvements, you’ll at least appreciate bug fixes, the aforementioned new calendar view, and better ways of controlling iOS 7’s UI. After spending a little time playing with 7.1, we’ve noticed it feels snappier as you move around the system. The darkened keyboard is also a welcomed improvement for every day use.
Apple has released a handful of minor updates to the operating system over the past few months. iOS 8 is not expected to be unveiled until later this year. It will likely debut around the release of iPhone 6.
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